1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printers, and more specifically to a method and apparatus for efficient processing of images in printers.
2. Related Art
Printers are often used to print a specified content (received from an external system such as personal computers) on medium such as paper. The content to be printed (“page content”) is typically specified by page description languages (PDL) such as Postscript (PS) and Printer Control Language (PCL), as is well known in the relevant arts. Printing generally entails converting a page content specified by a PDL to a corresponding bit map. The bit map may then be used to print the content on a desired medium (e.g., paper).
Bit maps are often generated by performing logical operations on data representing source, destination and paint. As is well known, a destination generally refers to a bit-map formed by rendering the display-list elements up to that point of time. A source refers to a current display list element being rendered, and paint refers to the shade of color or a pattern that the source maybe filled with in the destination. Destination is generally generated based on the source and paint.
Images are often contained in source and paint. An image is generally represented in the form of a bit map, and the corresponding data (“image data”) is used to generate the destination as noted above. Thus, generating page content typically entails processing the image data (along with the other operands).
Processing of images often consumes several resources such as memory space and processing power. In general, the approaches to process images need to be implemented while potentially meeting several requirements (e.g., minimizing resource usage, enhancing throughput performance, etc.). What is therefore needed is a method and apparatus which enables processing images while meeting one or more of such requirements.